Israel Adesanya vs Yoel Romero goes down this Saturday at T-Mobile Arena. Ahead of his fight, the middleweight champion and his head coach Eugene Bareman sat down with MMA Fighting for an interview.

In a few days from now, Adesanya will face one of his toughest challenges yet. The Last Stylebender will defend his title against Yoel Romero.

Romero is an elite wrestler with brutal power to knock out anybody in the division. He is well-known for his durability and explosiveness inside the cage.

On the other hand, Adesanya is a brilliant striker with a high Fight IQ. In just two years, Adesanya has conquered the middleweight throne in the UFC. He was also able to keep his undefeated record intact.

Adesanya trains at City Kickboxing gym in New Zealand. He attributes almost all of his success to his coach and his gym.

Israel Adesanya blasts American Kickboxing Academy

In the interview, Adesanya revealed the culture that has developed inside the gym. He said that his coach and his training partners constantly help in making him better.

“Dan [Hooker] came to help me with my sparring. Brad [Riddell] came to help me with my sparring, in my last one. Afterwards, you have to come back.”

Adesanya then trashed the American Kickboxing Academy gym. AKA is the same gym where big names like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Daniel Cormier, Cain Velasquez, and many others train. The gym has produced many champions with Javier Mendes as the head coach of the gym.

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Adesanya said, “You get your fight done and then you f**k off and that’s it.”

“They don’t give their body back to the people that gave their body to them.”

Stylebender believes that the fighters at AKA do not give back to each other.

Could this be a possible reference to Khabib Nurmagomedov?

The lightweight champion trains at AKA when he has a fight scheduled. However, he returns to Dagestan after his fight is over and spends most of his time there.

As of this moment, City Kickboxing has two current champions from their gym, Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski. It is one of the top-ranked MMA gyms in the world.

Later in the interview, Eugene Bareman revealed that City Kickboxing is one of the toughest gyms to get into. An athlete has to go through various steps before he can get enrolled. He also stated that money is not their priority.

What do you feel about Adesanya’s comments on AKA?